German

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By Brian German

Best Apps for Learning German – We Tested Over 35 Of Them

The substantial and ever-growing number of language apps available to learners of German is a good thing. It means that there’s an option out there for everyone, whatever their level of proficiency, goals, interests, and study preferences.

Sometimes, the trouble comes from choosing between so many options. The fact is, a lot of language apps do one or more things exceptionally well, and some are simply bad at everything.

This isn’t a list of every German language app ever made, but it’s a list of our favorites, organized by what they do best. We’ve spent hundreds of hours testing a great deal of them — hopefully, you can use our findings to locate the ones that will serve you best.

 

German Courses Available As Apps

Best Interactive Courses: Lingodeer, Babbel, and Busuu

Best Course for Developing Communication Skills: Pimsleur

Best Free Course: Duolingo

Apps For Learning Vocabulary and Grammar

Best for a Fun and Easy Way to Learn Vocabulary: Memrise

Best for a Customizable Review Experience: Anki

Best for Learning Vocabulary from Context: Lingvist and Clozemaster

Best Dictionary Apps: Pons and Linguee

Best for Learning German Articles: Der Die Das App and German Article Buster

Best for Learning German Irregular Verbs: German Irregular Verbs Wizard

Best for Grammar Exercises: Learn German DeutschAkademie

Apps For Practicing Reading and Listening

Best for Interesting Content: News in Slow German

Best for Reading Practice: LingQ

Best German Radio App: Radio Germany

Apps For Practicing Speaking and Writing

Best for Feedback on Pronunciation: Speechling

Best for Feeback on Writing: italki

Best for Answers to Quick Questions: HiNative

Apps For Finding Tutors and Language Exchange Partners

Best for Tutors: italki

Best for Language Exchange: Tandem

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By Nick French English German Italian Japanese Mandarin Chinese Russian Spanish

Speechling Review – I Didn’t Know I Was Saying That Wrong!

Quick Review

4.3 

Summary:

Speechling is a website and app that makes it easy to improve your speaking skills in several languages. The free version is an incredbily valuable resource that makes it easy to practice mimicking native speakers. The Unlimited Plan provides unlimited corrections of your recordings by a teacher.

Quality

Speachling makes it easy to improve your speaking rhythm and pronunciation.

Thoroughness

Lots of different ways to practice speaking.

Value

The free version is better than most paid resources and the paid version provides outstanding value.

Price

The Forever Free Plan is complete free. A monthly subscription to the Unlimited Plan costs $19.99 per month.

Use the promo code “ALR123”” to save 10% on Speechling’s Unlimited Plan.

Visit Speechling

Languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, and Japanese

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By Brian Arabic Afrikaans Albanian Armenian Belarusian Bengali Bulgarian Catalan Croatian Czech Danish English Estonian Filipino Finnish French German Greek Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Korean Kurdish Latin Lithuanian Malay Mandarin Chinese Norwegian Pashto Persian Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Thai Turkish Ukranian Urdu Vietnamese

Speaky Review: Better Than Other Language Exchange Apps?

Quick Review

3.7 

Summary

Speaky is a social language-learning app for people interested in language exchange. It’s available for iOS, Android, and the web. Users can chat with other language learners, share photos, leave voice messages or even have voice calls. The basic features on Speaky are free to use, but access to more than five translations per day requires a subscription.

Community

There are some dedicated language learners on Speaky but not as many as similar apps.

Features

The platform is easy to use but lacks advanced features.

Value

Speaky is mostly free to use, extra features are available for a subscription.

Languages

There are over 100 languages on Speaky. These include popular languages like Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, etc.

Price

The basic features on Speaky are free to use. A premium membership is available for a subscription.

1-month Subscription$5.99/month
6-month Subscription$4.83/month
12-month Subscription$3.91/month

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By Brian Arabic English French German Italian Japanese Mandarin Chinese Portuguese Russian Spanish

Rype App Review: I Wouldn’t Recommend It To Anybody

Quick Review

1.8 

Summary

Rype is a resource that provides language learners with access to one-on-one lessons with teachers. It’s aimed at providing a solution for the busy learner that needs a great deal of flexibility with their study time. Users purchase a subscription package that contains a certain number of lessons per month. The lessons are 30-minutes long and are easy to schedule.

Platform

The platform is very easy to use, but there aren’t many teacher details and lessons take place on Skype.

Teachers

There seems to be a range of experience levels on Rype and a very small number of teachers.

Value

The hourly rates are higher than similar online tutor options and you have to commit to a  subscription.

Price

The price varies per subscription package and number of lessons each month.

Number of Lessons Six-Month Subscription Monthly Subscription
8 Lessons/month$59.99/month$79.99
12 Lessons/month$84.99/month$99.99
20 Lessons/month$159.99/month$179.99
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By Brian French German Russian Spanish

Lingvist Review: Putting Their Courses To The Test

Quick Review

4 

Summary:

Lingvist is a language learning resource that uses spaced repetition and flashcards to help you build your vocabulary in a new language. There are five language courses made for English speakers, and some of these have an extra challenges section with additional reading, speaking, grammar, and listening practice. Lingvist is straightforward, easy to use, and most effective for beginners or intermediate learners.

Quality

The interface is easy to use and practice is enjoyable, but the grammar explanations aren’t great.

Thoroughness

The vocabulary practice is great, but the additional features are somewhat limited and vary by language.

Value

A subscription isn’t super expensive, but it isn’t the best resource for a comprehensive education.

Price

Lingvist is available for a recurring subscription period of one month, three months, or one year.

Subscription Length Monthly Price (Billing price)
One month$19.99
Three months$13.33 ($39.99)
One year$6.67 ($79.99)

Languages

German, French, Russian, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America)

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By Brian English Arabic French German Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Chinese Portuguese Russian Spanish

Live Lingua Review: My Experience With Their Lessons

Quick Review

3.8 

Summary

Live Lingua is an online language school that pairs students with certified teachers for one-on-one online classes. The platform aims to provide a more personalized service than online tutor directories by assigning a personal class coordinator and a customized curriculum for each student. Certificates are available in 11 different popular languages and for a variety of different courses.

Teacher Quality

All teachers are native speakers and receive additional training through Live Lingua.

Platform

Lots of extra free material, but with mistakes. There are specialized course options, and video lessons happen on Skype.

Value

More expensive than other online classes and less flexible, but more personalized.

Price

The hourly rate for classes on Live Lingua ranges from $11 – $39 depending on the certificate, language, and number of classes you purchase. The first lesson is free.

Languages

English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese

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By Brian Arabic English French German Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Chinese Polish Portuguese Russian Spanish Turkish

Busuu Review: Some Courses Are Better Than Others

Quick Review

3.3 

Summary:

Busuu is a digital language-learning app with over 90 million registered users. The resource offers vocabulary and grammar practice through short, self-paced study exercises. It also has a social aspect that allows users to get writing and pronunciation feedback from native speakers. It is available on the web, iOS, and Android.

Quality

The layout is great, and the quality for non-Asian languages is decent, but there were significant errors in the Chinese course.

Thoroughness

It has some good explanations but doesn’t often offer much in the way of in-depth explanations.

Value

Busuu is relatively inexpensive, but there are more thorough and efficient resources out there.

Price

Subscription LengthPremiumPremium Plus
One month$9.99$13.99
Three months$8.33/month ($24.99)$9.66 ($28.98)
Six months$5.82/month ($34.92)$6.66  ($39.96)
12 months$5.41/month ($64.92)$5.74  ($68.88)

Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, and Arabic

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By Brian English Estonian Finnish French German Italian Japanese Russian Spanish Swedish

Word Dive Review: Falls Short Compared To Similar Apps

Quick Review

2.8 

Summary

Word Dive uses artificial intelligence and short exercises to help language learners commit study items to long-term memory. The app provides instruction in ten languages and is available for desktop, iOS, and Android.

Quality

It’s very easy to use, but the material is limited.

Thoroughness

You can practice vocabulary and grammar, but there are almost no grammar explanations.

Value

It isn’t very expensive, but other resources are similarly priced and more comprehensive.

Price

Word Dive is available for a subscription.

Subscription PeriodPrice/MonthPayment Scheme
Monthly$9.99Renews automatically
Three months$9.33One time payment of $27.99
Six months$8.00One time payment of $47.99
One year$6.67One time payment of $79.99

Languages

English, German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Swedish, Japanese, Estonian, Russian, and Italian.

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By Brian French German Spanish

Chatterbug Review: Self-Study + 1-1 Classes – Does It Work?

Quick Review

3.7 

Summary

Chatterbug is a language learning platform designed with the aim of bringing together the convenience of digital learning apps and the value of one-on-one speaking practice. It was founded in 2016 and currently offers courses in German, Spanish, and French. Some of its features are available on iOS and Android; the full version is available for desktop.

Quality

The Live Lessons are great, but the other practice activities are somewhat limited and the interface isn’t very intuitive.

Thoroughness

The Live Lessons provide quality practice, and there are good grammar explanations, but reading and writing practice are limited.

Value

It isn’t super cheap, but the Casual and Serious plans could be worth it if you like the platform.

Price

The price of the recurring monthly subscription varies according to the number of Live Lessons you take each month.

PlanMonthly costLessons per monthPrice per extra lesson
Lite$231$23
Casual$854$22
Serious$1608$20
Ultimate$450UnlimitedN/A

Languages

German, Spanish, and French.

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By Brian Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Belarusian Bengali Bulgarian Cantonese Catalan Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Filipino Finnish French German Greek Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Korean Kurdish Latin Latvian Lithuanian Malay Mandarin Chinese Norwegian Pashto Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Thai Turkish Ukranian Urdu Vietnamese

HiNative Review: Useful But Not Exceptional Q&A App

Quick Review

3.7 

Summary

HiNative is a Q&A app for language learners that want to have questions answered by native speakers. It’s available for iOS, Android and desktop, and it has over three million registered users. A free version is available that offers the basic features of the app.

Features

The app is pretty basic, but it works.

Features

Many users are very helpful, but not all questions receive intelligent responses.

Value

The basic functions of the app are available for free, but you’ll need to pay for audio or video features.

Price

The basic features of HiNative are free to use. A premium subscription is available for $5.68/month paid monthly, or $4.96/month paid annually (a $59.63 payment).

Languages

HiNative supports just about any language.

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